Edwynn Houk Gallery\, in cooperation with Gagosian Gallery\,
is pleased to announce an exhibition of new photographic self-portraits by
Sally Mann (American\, b. 1951) from 13 September through 3 November 2012.
An opening reception for the artist will be held on Thursday\, 13 Septembe
r 2012\, from 6-8pm.Most people know Sally Mann as one of the most in
fluential and important photographers working today\, but what is far less
known is the fact that Sally Mann is also an avid and successful equestrian
.On her farm in Lexington\, Virginia\, Mann fills her pastures with A
rabians\, a breed known for their spiritedness\, loyalty\, and for their un
yielding courage\, a combination of character traits which are essential fo
r endurance riding\, Mann’s chosen sport.Sally Mann’s photography has
focused primarily on her immediate surroundings and on those things closes
t to her\; her husband\, Larry Mann (the subject of Proud Flesh\, 2005-2009
)\, her three children: Emmett\, Jessie and Virginia (the subjects of Immed
iate Family\, 1984-1994\, and What Remains\, 2004)\; her farm (Mother Land\
, 1993-1996)\, the South itself (Deep South\, 1998 and Last Measure\, 2001-
2002) as well as the ephemeral nature of life\, inextricably linked to the
concept of death\, as it relates to all the above (What Remains\, 2004).But most recently\, it was her relationship with horses\, and with one h
orse-related event in particular\, that gave birth to this newest series. O
n August 11\, 2006\, we received the following email from Sally Mann: I had
a real smash-up on Saturday...my stallion\, cantering along way up in the
mountains\, suddenly staggered\, reared back and fell over on me. I was kno
cked out but my friends say in his struggles to get up\, he pummeled my bac
k with his (newly shod that morning\, *sigh*) hooves\, bouncing me like a r
agdoll...anyway\, I came to consciousness in time to see him come crashing
down next to me\, dying. Terrible\, indescribable.Walked delirious 4
miles off the mountain and have been flat on my back for 6 days—Damaged eve
rything\, ribs\, sternum\, vertebrae\, and black and blue from my eyes to m
y knees. The doctor who came out said\, "You're going to hurt like crap for
a long time" and so far he's been right. Sad about the horse\, too. I was
really crazy about him.Probably an aneurysm killed him.Anyway\,
if ever I can get vertical and move my arms\, beyond typing that is\, I wi
ll try some printing... That was an optimistic sentiment\; it was many mont
hs more of recovery and limited activity\, a torment for a prolific artist.
But Sally Mann found she could take pictures of herself without having to
haul the camera around\, finding a trove of material within the confines of
her own face (Self-Portraits) and her own damaged torso (Omphalos). Mann h
as continued\, now long after her recovery\, to make more then 200 new ambr
otypes since the accident in 2006. And characteristic of Sally Mann\, the a
rtist has created a new technique for this project which is based on 19th c
entury processes but that incorporates a modern sensibility. Each unique im
age is captured as a wet-plate positive on a large\, black glass plate and
then is joined with others in groupings of 3\, 9\, 20\, and even up to 75 p
lates.Two grids of Sally Mann’s Self-Portraits were included in the 2
010-2011 exhibition\, “Sally Mann: The Flesh and The Spirit\,” at the Virgi
nia Museum of Fine Arts\, Richmond. In the accompanying book\, John B. Rave
nal\, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporar
y Art\, wrote about the Self-Portraits: …Mann complicates the logic of the
flattened geometrical order with references to the antiquated\, the irratio
nal\, and the horrendous. The repetitive display of degraded images calls t
o mind discards from a mid-nineteenth-century photo studio – plates flawed
by the sitter’s movement or the medium’s unstable actions\, of which they p
resent a catalogue: pitting\, scarring\, scratching\, streaking\, grainines
s\, blurriness\, erosion\, fading\, haziness\, delamination\, over-exposure
\, and under-exposure.For the very first time\, the works from the Om
phalos series will be on display. In this series\, the focus is on the arti
st’s torso. Akin to the faces\, the process is the same\, but the grids of
Omphalos examine more abstract\, sculptural forms. The plates themselves ha
ve been treated as such: chiseled\, scratched and smoothed until flesh beco
mes stone. Clearly a departure from one of the earliest and most timeless m
otifs in art\, Omphalos is a title not only referring to the torso\, but al
so to the symbolic continuation of the themes explored in Mann’s previous w
ork: fertility\, family\, and heredity\, recorded in the human form and in
the land.Sally Mann lives and works in Lexington\, Virginia. A Guggen
heim fellow\, and a three-times recipient of the National Endowment for the
Arts fellowship\, Mann was named “America’s Best Photographer” by Time mag
azine in 2001. She has been the subject of two documentaries: Blood Ties (1
994) and What Remains (2007)\, both of which were nominated for Academy Awa
rds\, She has been the subject of major exhibitions at the Institute of Con
temporary Art\, Philadelphia\, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art\, Washington
\, D.C.. Her photographs can be found in many public and private collection
s\, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art\; the Museum of Modern Art\; a
nd the Whitney Museum of American Art. Sally Mann is represented by Gagosia
n Gallery and Edwynn Houk Gallery.